Baseball bat attack hospitalises Khimki Forest activist, latest violence connected with controversial Moscow-St Petersburg motorway plans

Environmental and human rights activist Konstantin Fetisov of Khimki near Moscow was today assaulted near his house by unknown assailants wielding a baseball bat and is now in a serious condition in hospital.

The attack is thought to be connected with Fetisov's activities in the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, in which local people have campaigned to stop the EUR 1.5 billion first section of the planned Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway – potentially to be financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – from passing through and devastating the Khimki Forest near Moscow.[1]

Konstantin Fetisov was among those directly defending Khimki Forest from motorway construction preparations during the summer. Tent camps and demonstrations took place on the site, eventually resulting in President Dmitry Medvedev calling a halt in late August to tree felling pending further public hearings into the case. However the issue is far from resolved, with proponents of the original routing through the forest sticking rigidly to their position.

According to activists from the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, local police have so far today not shown any interest in investigating the attack on Fetisov. The police are said to have failed to take as evidence the broken baseball bat that was abandoned by the attackers.

This is the latest in several attacks on Khimki Forest activists, and is the most brutal since local journalist Mikhail Beketov was beaten unconscious and had to have a leg amputated two years ago. Police halted the investigation of Beketov's case a few months ago due to its 'complexity' and 'lack of evidence'.

Mikhail Mateev, of the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest, commented: “This outrageous attack seems to be further proof of the lengths to which the proponents of the Khimki Forest routing of the motorway are prepared to go. While we’re heartened by recent confirmations from the European Commission that the European public banks will not back the current variant of the motorway routing, attacks like this vividly highlight the foul play going on and the need for a completely independent assessment of the possible motorway routings.”[2]

CEE Bankwatch Network is working with the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest to ensure that the EBRD and the EIB, Europe's two public development banks, do not finance the Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway unless a routing is found that is acceptable for local people and the environment.

For more information

Yaroslav Nikitenko,
Movement to Defend Khimki Forest (English and Russian)
Mobile +7 916 743 37 59.

Mikhail Matveev,
Movement to Defend Khimki Forest (English and Russian)
Mobile + 7 965 392 28 14

Pippa Gallop, CEE Bankwatch Network (English)
Telephone + 385 1 3455 679
Email: pippa.gallop AT bankwatch.org

Notes for editors:

1. For more information about the Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway project, see: http://bit.ly/d0Qu2e

2. It has recently been confirmed during a meeting between Bankwatch, the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest and the European Commission that the project's appraisal at the banks is currently frozen. However the Commission did not categorically rule out the banks’ participation if improvements in the project design are forthcoming.

Further details available at: http://bit.ly/b3U6kR